Report: Israel extends cease-fire for 24 hours

Palestinian men leave after they salvaged goods from destroyed houses during a short period of cease-fire in the Shuja'iyya neighborhood in east Gaza City on July 26, 2014.(Photo: Oliver Weiken, European Pressphoto Agency)

GAZA CITY — Israel's Cabinet extended a humanitarian cease-fire for 24 hours but said it would respond to any attacks from Gaza, according to an Associated Press report.

The AP quoted a government official who wrote in a text message that the truce would be extended through midnight on Sunday, but that operations targeting Hamas military tunnels would continue. He requested anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters on the development.

Hamas had earlier rejected Israel's four-hour extension of a humanitarian cease-fire Saturday as the Palestinian death toll in the conflict rose to more than 1,000. A short time later, the group said it fired five rockets from Gaza, two pointed directly at Tel Aviv.

Meanwhile, at least 130 bodies were recovered Saturday, Gaza health official Ashraf al-Kidra said, as Palestinians used the cease-fire to move medical supplies and tend to the dead and injured in the Gaza Strip.

As the initial lull in hostilities began at 8 a.m. Saturday, Gazans poured onto the streets to find food supplies, look for missing family members or return to homes they left for shelters. The nearly three weeks of fighting has left swaths of rubble, destroyed roads and damaged power infrastructure in residential neighborhoods across the strip.

More than 1,000 Palestinians, mainly civilians, have been killed since the conflict began on July 8. Another 6,000 have been wounded. In Israel, 43 have died, including 40 soldiers, two civilians and a Thai worker.

Imad Nasrallah, 38, said he and others have made it a point not to forget the living.

"With my brothers and neighbors, we volunteer and go help others, in case their homes were targeted," Nasrallah said. "We transfer the wounded to hospitals or go carry the martyrs and bury them."

Palestinians celebrate the announcement of a cease-fire on Aug. 26 in Gaza City. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire proposal to end seven weeks of fighting between Israel and militant groups in the Gaza Strip. (Photo: Mohammed Saber, European Pressphoto Agency)

A worker removes debris from the Cohen family bedroom after a missile fired by militants in the Gaza Strip made a direct hit in their home in Ashkelon, Israel. (Photo: Abir Sultan, European Pressphoto Agency)

A Palestinian boy walks across the rubble of a house belonging to the al-Dakhani family after an Israeli airstrike on the Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip. Two people were wounded in the attack. (Photo: Eyad Baba, AP)

A man looks out the window of a damaged classroom after a rocket, fired by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip, landed in the courtyard of a kindergarten in Ashdod, Israel. (Photo: Jack Guez, AFP/Getty Images)

A Palestinian man sweeps the floor of his home that was damaged after a mosque across the street was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip. (Photo: Roberto Schmidt, AFP/Getty Images)

A Palestinian woman watches from a hole in a home belonging to Hamas financial official Mohammed al-Ghul after it was targeted by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City. One of several targeted airstrikes by Israeli forces killed Al-Ghul in his vehicle. (Photo: Mohammed Abed, AFP/Getty Images)

Relatives and close family friends of Daniel Turgeman touch his coffin during the boy's funeral on Aug. 24 in Yevul, Israel. Turgeman, 4, was killed in a mortar attack fired by Palestinians inside the Gaza Strip on Aug. 22. (Photo: Jim Hollander, European Pressphoto Agency)

An Israeli firefighter extinguishes a fire after rockets fired by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip hit a field near the southern Israeli city of Sderot. (Photo: Menahem Kahana, AFP/Getty Images)

Palestinians carry the body of the wife of Mohammed Deif, Israel's most-wanted man, at the Jabaliya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip. According to media reports, Deif's wife and son were killed Aug. 20 in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City. Israel holds Deif, the leader of the Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, accountable for directing the Gaza conflict from underground. (Photo: Mohammed Saber, European Pressphoto Agency)

Israeli soldiers in an undisclosed southern Israeli location take cover inside a cement pipe near the border with the Gaza Strip as a 'red alert' sounds, signaling that Palestinian militants have fired a rocket toward the area. The Israeli army reported that Palestinians shot about 180 rockets and mortars since the collapse of the cease-fire, with scores of Israeli strikes inside the Gaza Strip. (Photo: Avi Roccah, European Pressphoto Agency)

Palestinians grieve over the death of Widad Mustafa Deif, 27, and her 8-month-old son, Ali Mohammed Deif, during their funeral in Jabaliya refugee camp. They were killed by an Israeli strike Aug. 20. (Photo: Khalil Hamra, AP)

A Palestinian boy spots two Israeli drones in the late afternoon Aug. 19. Palestinians fled their homes in neighborhoods of eastern Gaza City carrying bags of clothes, pillows and mattresses after renewed Israeli airstrikes, witnesses said. Nine days of relative quiet in the skies over Gaza came to an abrupt halt when rockets struck Israel just hours before the truce was to expire at midnight local time. Israel immediately ordered a military response, with warplanes striking targets across the coastal strip. (Photo: Roberto Schmidt, AFP/Getty Images)

A rocket fired by Palestinian militants inside the Gaza Strip rises into the night sky. More than 50 rockets were fired toward Israeli civilian centers from Gaza on Aug. 19, shattering the 24-hour cease-fire, and Israel responded with multiple air force attacks on Gaza, with deaths and many casualties reported. (Photo: Avi Roccah, European Pressphoto Agency)

Palestinian rescuers clear the rubble of a destroyed house following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City. The Israeli airstrike killed a young girl and a woman, wounding 16 other people. (Photo: Mohammed Abed, AFP/Getty Images)

An Egyptian soldier stands guard on the Egyptian side of the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip on Aug. 13, overlooking the damage in Rafah caused by a month of fighting between the Israeli military and Hamas militants. (Photo: Said Khatib, AFP/Getty Images)

Palestinian mourners carry the body of Zakariah al-Aqrah, 21, during his funeral in the West Bank village of Qabalan. The Israeli military said it killed al-Aqrah early Monday morning after he opened fire on an Israeli force that had come to arrest him in connection with shootings targeting Israeli soldiers two weeks ago. (Photo: Majdi Mohammed, AP)

A Palestinian man standing in a crowd of onlookers reacts to watching a soap factory go up in flames moments after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, Aug, 10. (Photo: Roberto Schmidt, AFP/Getty Images)

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Saturday's temporary truce was the second and the longest since the conflict began on July 8. A humanitarian cease-fire on July 17 was quickly overlooked as rocket fire resumed as soon as the set five hours expired.

In Paris on Saturday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with European foreign ministers to find ways to build off Saturday's lull.

On Friday, Israel rejected a U.S.-backed proposal for a weeklong truce because it would require its forces to interrupt its operation to destroy Hamas tunnels. Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon told troops Friday that Israel may significantly widen the Gaza ground operation.

A truce proposed by Egypt last week was rejected by Hamas because the group said it wasn't consulted. Hamas says any peace deal must include the lifting of a blockade against Gaza.

In the northern town of Beit Hanoun, residents — many of whom had fled days earlier — encountered widespread destruction Saturday.

"Nothing is left. Everything I have is gone," said Siham Kafarneh, 37, weeping as she talked about the destroyed home she had spent 10 years saving up for and moved into just two months ago.

The continued hostilities have meant nowhere is safe for Nasrallah and his family as shelters no longer offer the promise of security, he said.

"It's not safe to go out but there is no guarantee our homes are safe," said Nasrallah. "Many houses were hit by Israeli tank shelling and airstrikes while people were inside."

Israel and Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group that governs the Gaza Strip, have fought at least 10 wars and skirmishes in the past decade. The latest round of Gaza fighting began July 8 and with the collapse of truce talks in Cairo, there's risk of protracted fighting. A look at events since the collapse of the talks on August 19.